In an election that drew 55 percent fewer votes than last year, Katerina Schreck was elected president of the Associated Students of DVC.

Running on the UAID coalition slate, Schreck beat out Francisco Hinajosa, current Inter Club Council president and Progressive Democratic Students coalition member, who had run and lost for the position of ASDVC president four times before.

Schreck got 322 votes, while Hinajosa only got 245.

The other executive board winners are as follows: Chang Min (Kevin) Park, vice president of executive affairs; Brian Donovan, vice president of legislative affairs; Tsz Ching (Chelsea) Cheung, controller; Alexis Terrill, secretary; Ricky Wong, parliamentarian; Chung Ki Cheng,  public relations officer; Lak Hak (Derek) Cheang,  activities coordinator; Daija Cornelious, minority affairs officer; and Vanessa Poon,  webmaster.

But an elections code violation complaint was filed Tuesday by current activities coordinator Adrian Briones against Hinajosa and Nick Holmes, both of whom were defeated for the positions of president and vice president of executive affairs respectively, as well as Donovan who ran unopposed and won the vice president of legislative affairs position, said student life manager Adriana Lopez.

Briones himself lost race for the position of webmaster to Vanessa Poon.

While last year UAID swept the election, this year the two coalitions that ran were evenly matched. Five candidates from each coalition won, including Cornelious who was endorsed by the PDS slate, although not an official member.

Only 626 students of the more than 20,000 who attend DVC voiced their opinions at the voting booths this past Saturday, Monday and Tuesday. This is compared to the 1,389 students who voted in last year’s election and the 1,201 who voted in 2008.

Student life manager Lopez attributed the low voter turnout to possibly her own inexperience in publicizing an election on the DVC campus, as well as a lack of competition among the candidates.

“When there is more competition…there tends to be more word that gets out,” Lopez said.

Last year’s election was much more competitive, with as many as four students running for a given position. This year, the maximum for any one position was two candidates and four candidates ran unopposed.

The elections code violation complaint filed by Briones alleges that flyers circulated prior to and during voting contained factually inaccurate and libelous information about him and president-elect Schreck, both of whom are members of the UAID coalition.

“The whole understanding about the idea of freedom of speech is that there is an exception for slanderous or libelous charges,” Lopez said.

The flyers were signed by Frank Runninghorse, a member of the Students for a Democratic Society, a club that Holmes and Donovan also belong to.

Briones charges that the three PDS coalition members, Hinajosa, Holmes and Donovan, violated section 7.04 of the Elections Code which states, “Candidates are responsible for the actions of their campaign committee, whether authorized or not.” 

The election committee, chaired by Ben Prayada, current vice president of executive affairs, will make a determination at the next committee meeting on April 29.

At the voting booths students were also asked to vote on a $1 student representation fee, which failed.

The fee would have been charged to students at the beginning of every semester to help pay for ASDVC and Inter Club Council members to attend leadership trainings and conferences where they would represent the student body.

The fee failed last year as well.

Contact Ariel Messman-Rucker at [email protected]